China Household Paper Industry Overview, 2017-2021

Household paper refers to all kinds of paper products used in daily life including toilet paper, tissue, paper handkerchief, napkin, wet tissue, kitchen paper, sanitary napkin and paper diaper. With the economic development, the household paper industry developed rapidly in recent 10 years. Household paper varieties are widely used in people’s daily life with convenience and closeness to consumers including toilet paper, tissue, napkin, paper diaper for babies, sanitary napkin for ladies in supermarkets and shopping malls.

Household paper is necessary for large consumer groups in daily life. With the social and economy development, the demand for household paper diversifies and transfers towards medium and high grade products. Meanwhile, supermarkets and hypermarkets become the mainstream of domestic retail industry with its diversification, leading to increasing importance of terminal markets for household paper manufacturers.

Therefore, it is a trend for them to improve the product quality, reduce production costs and develop modern manufacturing of household paper with certain scale. According to CRI, the consumption volume of household paper increased from over 6 million tons in 2011 to over 8 million tons in 2016, and the sales revenue increased from over CNY 60 billion to over CNY 80 billion during the corresponding period.

According to CRI, national household paper brands are less than 10 in number while others are regional ones in China. The aggregate market share of top 5 household paper manufacturers is less than 50% of the total in 2015, which shows a low market concentration rate. At present, there are numerous household paper brands with high homogeneity while most of them lack competitiveness and long-term loyal consumer groups.